Quotes About Maturity

Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford, and you are not that young any more.

It I'd galling indeed to have stood so long, hat in hand, waiting for Americans to grow up enough to realize that you do not threaten them. (From The Fure Next Time)

It I'd galling indeed to have stood so long, hat in hand, waiting for Americans to grow up enough to realize that you do not threaten them. (from The Fire Next Time)

The fact that their [the flower children's] uniforms and their jargons precisely represented the distances they had yet to cover before arriving at that maturity which makes love possible—or no longer possible—could not be considered their fault. They had been born into a society in which nothing was harder to achieve, in which perhaps nothing was more scorned and feared than the idea of the soul's maturity.

People who cannot suffer can never grow up, can never discover who they are.

A man grows up when he looks back, realizes what has happened to him, accepts it all, and begins to change himself. He cannot grow up until he reaches this moment and passes it. We are now at the end of our extraordinarily prolonged adolescence. A very great poet, an American, Miss Marianne Moore, wrote, many years ago, the following description of our terrors: The weak overcomes its menace. The strong overcomes itself.

This was the summer in which they all abruptly began to grow older, their bodies becoming troublesome and awkward and even dangerous and their voices not to be trusted.

why swear at him, even to yourself? He hasn't sworn at you. Swearing's for the weak, or for fools. Isn't it?

I learn things late—and only the hard way.

every period of life has its necessities, and at forty-seven it's just as well to trust a little to the head.

I am getting to that age where I am too old to play the boy next door and too young to play Uncle Fester.

I don't have a creepy uncle, but I certainly have many, many uncles. My mom has twelve brothers and sisters, and my dad has two sisters and three brothers. Their maturity level is still hovering around fifteen when they all get together, but they're not necessarily creepy.

I'd never want to go back to being in my twenties or thirties. I was lost and confused and uncomfortable in my own skin.

True adulthood occurs the moment we grasp that the people who raised us do not exist solely for our comfort and reassurance. From that point on, the steady stream of unconditional love and support we've expected from them all our lives has to flow both ways.

Looking back at my career, I wish I knew then what I know now... that gender bias is built into the system, and it's unconscious in many ways. I wish I had the maturity and courage to have pushed back more. I was always trying to be a 'good girl' and play by the rules.

Before, when I was 19-0, I was undefeated and I was 23, 24 years old. Yeah, I was cocky, I had a little bit of ego. I had to get humbled.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

I don't blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they'll realize there's more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

What you have to understand is that my thing is not glamour. I love stretch marks and C-section scars and all of that. I'm a grown man. You don't gotta put on no makeup with me.

The more life you live, the more you are able to understand the experiences of other people. It's one of the few benefits of getting older.

Part of adulthood is searching for the people who understand you.

I'm just getting older and I'm understanding the game and I'm more experienced in the league.

You create real friendships through a growth process. It's not just, oh hi, we're friends! That's very childlike. True adult friendships take time, understanding, and it's a plant that needs to be watered and tended to so that it blossoms.

Forty is better than 30. I have a better understanding of who I am, what makes me tick, what's okay and not okay.